Get a Handle on Your Physical And Mental Health in 2022
© Julia Caesar
Improving and maintaining your physical and mental health is an ongoing project. Yet while it may take some extra effort to get your health on track and heading in a direction you’re happy with, it’s nowhere near impossible. In fact, with some of our tips and advice, it could be much more reasonable than you think.
Ultimately, once you’ve laid out your goals and have identified how best to accomplish them, you’ll find that it’s much easier to remain motivated. Here is our advice on how you can get hold of your health in 2022, and really hit the ground running at the start of the year.
Improve Your Diet
Changing up your diet is a great first step to sorting out your fitness. No matter what your goal is, whether you’re looking to lose weight or pile on the muscle, you’ll be able to influence this with the food you ingest. When it comes to choosing what food to eat, it’s important to do some extra research. You’ll want to find out what your recommended daily caloric intake is and keep below it if trying to lose weight, and above if you’re trying to gain some mass. As well as this, you’ll want to cut out poor quality foods such as processed ready meals as they contain lots of unhealthy preservatives and excess salt and sugar which are not good for your body.
Find A Physical Hobby
Next up it’s time to think about exercising. Finding ways to improve your fitness is an essential part of raising your health to a higher level. Ideally, you should be including some quality cardio exercises into your routine as this will strengthen your heart as well as help to burn off excess calories that would otherwise be turned into fats if you’ve eaten too many beyond your recommended daily intake.
No matter what your goals are for your physical fitness, it’s worthwhile for everyone to do some form of strength training too. Lifting weight or using machines at the gym can work as a combination of both cardio and strength, depending on things like the weight you’ve chosen and the number of reps you do. More reps at a lower weight can help you tone your body and get the blood pumping, whereas high weight and low repetitions will focus on strength and resistance training, helping to build your muscles and strengthen your joints and bones too.
Full Medical Checkup
If you have any serious concerns about your general health, or if you just want to be extra careful and rule out any severe health issues, it may be worth speaking to your doctor to arrange a full medical check up. They’ll be able to run some basic tests such as taking blood samples and assessing your physical wellbeing to discern whether you need to speak to any specialists or not. If you want to go a bit further than that, you could also consider getting a more thorough check such as an Ezra’s full body MRI scan. Situated in major cities around the country, Ezra can screen you for serious medical problems such as cancers to give you the chance of catching these issues early. Knowing that you’re all clear can also give you the confidence and reassurance to carry on with your daily life without worry and to focus on other aspects of your health.
Improve Your Gut Health
Looking after your gut is just as important as changing your diet and can significantly improve your daily life. Many Americans suffer from digestive problems, and this can be down to having a low-quality microbiome in the intestines. Our guts are a haven for bacteria which serve to help us break down our foods, making them easier to absorb into our systems.
Everyone’s microbiome is different and contain varying amounts of bacteria as well as different numbers of strains. Each strain serves its own purpose, and therefore the more you have, the better coverage you’ll have for breaking down harder to digest foods. Being able to break these down helps you to avoid problems such as cramping and bloating and feeling generally unwell. Your microbiome can be improved with the help of probiotic foods and supplements which will help to repopulate your gut bacteria and introduce new variants into the microbiome.
Check In With Yourself
When it comes to our mental health it’s so important to be conscious of how you’re feeling. It’s easy to just shut out those feelings and worries, but in the long run you’re going to risk making things worse. Once you’ve identified that you’re struggling, the next step is accepting the need for help and that’s the bravest step you can take. Speak to a medical professional or a loved one for advice on how to proceed or visit Mental Health America for more advice. There are so many different things that can be done today to help alleviate the pressure of poor mental health and it’s very important that you remember you’re not alone.